Technical Desk - Setting Up Outlook Synchronisation with Commence

A great feature of Commence is the out-of-the-box integration with Outlook. The Outlook integration allows you to see your Commence Contacts, Tasks and Calendar items from within your Outlook application. Not only that, but you can edit these items in Outlook or add new items, and they will synchronise back to Commence.

With Outlook integration you can also log emails directly from Outlook to Commence, but this will be covered in a future edition of CRMtimes.

Setting Up Outlook Synchronisation

The Outlook integration comes standard with Commence, however it needs to be set up correctly for it to work. 

Outlook needs to be installed before you install Commence, for the integration to work.

Also before you begin making any changes to your Commence database, it is important that you make a backup of your database first  (see the CRMtimes article "Backing up your Database"). You should also disable the Workgroup syncing until you are sure that the Outlook syncing is working correctly.

The steps that you need to follow to synchronise with Outlook are:

1. Prepare your data for synchronisation.

2. Modify your database so that you have all the fields required for synchronising with Outlook.

3. Set the Outlook field mappings in Commence.

4. Set the E-Mail preferences in Commence.

5. Start the synchronisation with Outlook.

1. Preparing Your Data for Synchronisation

• Check that all calendar items have the end time set after the start time. Outlook does not support appointments with the end time set incorrectly. A view of the calendar category, filtered on items where the Duration field is less than 0, will show if there are any items with an invalid end time.

• Make sure all the required fields have valid data entered. When adding items to the Commence calendar, the required fields are Description, Start Date, Start Time, and End Time. When adding items to the Outlook calendar, the required fields are Description, Start Date, Start Time, End Time and End Date. If the End Date field is blank, the data will not synchronize properly with Commence.

• For contacts, the only required field is of type "Name". If an Outlook contact is added with no name, Outlook will automatically assign a name of "(unknown)" to the item. This will synchronize successfully and will be filed as "(unknown)" in Commence.

• Check for duplicate items. On the first synchronisation between Outlook and Commence, all information in each application is copied to the other. If you have been copying information manually from Commence to Outlook, or vice versa, the initial synchronization will cause duplicates to be created. Prior to the first synchronisation, you will need to ensure that any item in Commence does not already exist in Outlook and visa-versa. Alternatively you can just delete duplicate records after the first synchronisation.

2. Modifying Your Database

Controlling Which Items Sync

For Contacts, Tasks and Calendar Items, there are three different ways you can control which items synchronise with Outlook:

• Sync every item from the Commence category with Outlook

• Manually select which items will sync with Outlook

• For each user, only sync the contacts, tasks and/or calendar items, which are connected to that user

This control is managed by a special Outlook field called "Sync Condition". For every category that you want to synchronise, you need to set the "Sync Condition" field for that category, as well as the normal field mappings. 

If you want to sync every item in the Commence category with Outlook, you need to: 

• Leave the Outlook "Sync Condition" field mapped to nothing. 

• No other modifications to your database are required. 

If you want to sync each item manually, then you will need to:

• Add a new field to the category in Commence, eg "Sync with Outlook". This field must be a Check box field type. 

• Add the new field onto the appropriate forms

• Then map the Outlook "Sync Condition" field to the "Sync with Outlook" field that you just created in Commence. 

Now whenever you create a new item in Commence, if you tick the "Sync with Outlook" field, this item will sync to Outlook next time the Outlook synchronisation is run. 

If you want to sync only those items which are connected to the user, then you need to:

• Create a connection between the category, (e.g. Contacts) and your Staff / Employee category, which contains the (-Me-) item.

• Then map the Outlook "Sync Condition" field to the connection that you just created in Commence. 

Look at the next section "Setting the Outlook Field Mappings in Commence" for more detailed instructions on how to map the fields.

Determining How Appointments & Tasks Sync

Another database modification that you should think about, relates to your Appointment and To-do/Task items. Some customers like to have just one Commence category, which contains both their appointments and their to-do items.

In this case, getting Outlook to determine what is a "to-do" item and what is an "appointment", sounds difficult, but it's easy if you use the Outlook "Activity Type" field.

All that you need to do is:

• Add a field to your appointments category, eg "Type" which is a Selection field type

• Then define the different selections, making sure that one of the selections is called "To-Do" and another selection is called "Appointment "

• Add the "Type" field onto your Appointment and To-do forms

• Map the Outlook "Activity type" field to the "Type" field, which you just created in Commence.

Now whenever you create a to-do/appointment item, you can set the "Type" field = "To-Do". When the Outlook synchronisation runs, the item will come across to Outlook as a Task. 

Any items where the "Type" field is NOT set to "To-Do", will come across to Outlook as an Appointment.  

Tasks that are added from Outlook will have the activity type automatically set to "To-Do" when they synchronise to Commence.

3. Setting the Outlook Field Mappings in Commence

In order to synchronise data between Commence and Outlook, the Commence fields must be mapped to an equivalent field in Outlook.

Only those fields which are going to sync need to be mapped.

To map your Contact fields, follow these steps:

1. Select Customise > Preferences > Other Apps. 

2. Under Configure Commence as: select Microsoft Outlook Contacts.

3. Under Category: select the Commence category that contains your Contacts

4. Then go thru the list of Outlook fields and map the fields to the appropriate Commence field. 

5. When you have finished mapping all the fields, click on Done to save the configuration.

Required field mappings

For a full list of recommended field mappings for Contacts, refer to page 34 of the Microsoft Office Integration guide.

To map your Calendar item fields, follow these steps:

1. Select Customise > Preferences > Other Apps. 

2. Under Configure Commence as: select Microsoft Outlook Calendar.

3. Under Category: select the Commence category that contains your Calendar Items

4. Then go thru the list of Outlook fields and map the fields to the appropriate Commence field. 

To map the fields, you need to double-click on the field names from the list. The following box will appear:

Select the Commence field to map to from the pull-down list, and click on OK to save the mapping.

5. When you have finished mapping all the fields, click on Done to save the configuration.

Required field mappings

For a full list of recommended field mappings for Calendar items, refer to page 35 of the Microsoft Office Integration guide.

To map your Task/To-do fields, follow these steps:

1. Select Customise > Preferences > Other Apps. 

2. Under Configure Commence as: select Microsoft Outlook Tasks.

3. Under Category: select the Commence category that contains your Tasks / To-do items

4. Then go thru the list of Outlook fields and map the fields to the appropriate Commence field. 

5. When you have finished mapping all the fields, click on Done to save the configuration.

Required field mappings

For a full list of recommended field mappings for Tasks, refer to page 36 of the Microsoft Office Integration guide.

4. Set the E-Mail preferences in Commence.

For Commence to synchronise with Outlook, it must be configured as a MAPI 32-bit E-Mail client in the Commence preferences.

To configure the email preferences:

1. Select Customise > Preferences > Other Apps. 

2. Under Configure Commence as: select E-Mail client.

3. Under Mail Program: select MS Exchange or MAPI-compatible (32-bit).

4. Enter your E-Mail User Name and Password. Re-enter the password in the Verify Password box. For 32-bit MAPI E-mail applications, the User Name is typically contained within a Profile. Determine the Profile Name for Microsoft Outlook and enter it into the box labelled User Name. (e.g., Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings) 

5. When you have finished click on Done to save the configuration.

5. Starting the Synchronisation with Outlook.

There are two different ways you can run the Commence synchronisation with Outlook:

• Manually (in Commence, go to Tools > Outlook Sync)  

• Automatically (by setting up an agent to run at certain times).

These options provide the Commence user with the flexibility to synchronise the data at anytime or at regular intervals.

On the first sync between Commence and Outlook, all items are copied from one program to the other. Commence creates a base file to keep track of the information present in Commence and Outlook.

From then on, Commence compares the information it currently has, to the information stored in the base file. This comparison determines if the information is new, changed, or deleted.

• New Information. If an item is present in Commence but is not found in the base file, it is a new item and is added to Outlook.

• Changed Information. If an item is in Commence but is different from the base file, the item is edited in Outlook.

• Deleted Information. Any items that are found in the base file but are not in Commence are items that have been deleted, and are removed from Outlook.

This process is repeated, comparing the information found in Outlook with the information in the base file in order to update Commence with the latest changes.

Setting Up an Agent to Automatically Sync with Outlook

Remembering to synchronise Commence with Outlook everyday, can become frustrating, so you can set up an agent to automatically run the synchronisation for you. If you want the agent to sync every user first thing in the morning, follow these steps:

1. In Commence, go to Customise > Database and click on the Agent Tab, the following screen will appear: 

2. Click on the Add button, to create a new agent. Give the agent an appropriate name like "Sync with Outlook"

3. Make sure the Active and Shared boxes are ticked 

4.  Click on the T button to set the trigger for the agent. 

5. Make the trigger a Timer, that runs daily at 9:00AM. Trigger if Missed should be ticked.

6. Click on OK to save the trigger settings. 

7. When you go back to the New Agent dialog box, this time click on the A button. This will allow you to set the action for the agent.

8. Make the Action Type = Outlook Sync, and tick all items which you want to automatically synchronise.

9. Click on OK to save the action settings. 

10. When you go back to the New Agent dialog box, it will look like this:

11. Click on the Save button to save the agent. 

Now everyday at 9:00am, the agent will run and automatically sync with Outlook for you.

Commence <> Outlook <> PDA Syncing

An extension of Outlook integration is PDA syncing. The data that you sync from Commence to Outlook, ie your contacts, to-do's and/or appointments, can also be synced from Outlook to your PDA.  

Similarly if you create or edit any items on the PDA, they can be synced to Outlook and then synced to Commence.

Currently Commence only supports Outlook synchronisation with Pocket PC and Palm-Pilot based PDA's.

Having Personal Contacts, Tasks and Calendar Items In Outlook

Commence synchronises the data to the default Outlook folders ie, "Contacts", "Tasks" and "Calendar".

So if you want to have your own separate contacts list in Outlook, all you need to do is just create a new Outlook folder called "Contacts_Personal". Then just move your existing contacts to the new folder.  

This works the same for tasks and calendar items, just create Outlook folders called "Tasks_Personal" and "Calendar_Personal". Then move your existing items to the appropriate personal folder.

No information from the personal folders will sync with Commence.

Making Local Contacts, Tasks and Calendar Items Shared

When any the new contacts, calendar items or tasks get created in Outlook, they are created in Commence as local items (meaning only viewable by the user/Commence client who is syncing with Outlook). 

You might find this surprising, but it is designed this way so that you don't accidentally sync all your items with every Commence user. Once you have made an item shared, it is impossible to make it a local item again. However you can easily make a local item shared.

If you want to make the local items available to all Commence users, you have two choices: 

• Manually get each user to go through their local items and set them to be shared 

• Set up an agent, which goes through the local items and makes them shared. 

To create an agent, which makes the local Contacts shared:

1. Add a new agent, make sure that the Active and Shared boxes are ticked.

2. For the trigger, set it to be a timer, at say 9:30AM. "Trigger if missed" should be ticked.

3. Set the condition for the agent to be "Item Count" in the Contact category where more than 0 items visible.

4. You only want the agent to run on local items, so set a filter on   "(Shared vs Local)", with Local ticked.

5. Next click on the A button, to set the action for the agent. Make the action "Edit Item" using Condition 1, then have "Promote Items To Shared" ticked.

6. Finally save the agent.

Now everyday at 9:30am, the agent will go through each user's local Contacts, and share them with the other Commence users. 

If you want to share the local Tasks and/or local Calendar items, it's simply a matter of setting-up another agent for the Tasks and/or Appointments, just as for Contacts. 

Advanced Outlook Synchronisation

There is another, more advanced way of having personal contacts, appointments and tasks, which involves using the "Categories.." Outlook field and some agents. 

When you create contacts, appointments and tasks in Outlook, you can manually assign a "Categories.." for each item in Outlook. 

The default Outlook Categories.. list contains "Business" and "Personal" as well as a number of others. So you can use this list to assign "Business" contacts and "Personal" contacts etc. 

You can create a new Selection Type field in Commence, which also contains the same options, ie "Business" and "Personal".

Then map your new Commence selection field to the "Categories.." field in Outlook.

Now when you synchronise with Outlook, the items that come into Commence, will retain the information on which category (ie "Business" or "Personal") that they were assigned to. 

You can then use this connection when setting up your sharing agent, so that it makes only the local Contacts shared, which have "Business" assigned to them. 

Reference

For more information on setting up the Commence to Outlook synchronisation refer to the Microsoft Office Integration Guide, which is available from Start > Programs > Commence > Microsoft Office Integration Guide.

Summary

As you can see there are a lot of really neat things you can do with Outlook integration, to help you get your contacts, appointments and to-dos, wherever you are.